A Second Life for Two Embassies in Cuba and the U.S.

In 1961, the United States Embassy in Cuba closed, less than a decade after the building was completed. Today, that building once again opened as an embassy. (The building became a U.S. Interests Section in 1977.) Michael Wise wrote about the building’s architectural significance in ARCHITECT back in December:

“The former U.S. Embassy building in Havana, completed in 1953, will once again become a full-fledged embassy in the Cuban capital, according to the U.S. State Department. The modernist embassy was the work of Harrison & Abramovitz, the architectural partnership of Wallace K. Harrison and Max Abramovitz, which played a major role in designing Lincoln Center and the United Nations headquarters in New York City. The Havana building formed part of a string of sleek embassies commissioned by the State Department from prominent architects in the aftermath of World War II.”

Stateside, the Cuban Embassy building in Washington, D.C., also reopens as an embassy today. Like the U.S. Embassy in Cuba, this building housed the Cuban Interests Section. According to The Washington Post, the 1919 Colonial revival building “was a hit in Washington’s high society” when it opened.